SALMONELLA CONFIRMED IN JARS OF PEANUT BUTTER

Salmonella confirmedin jars of peanut butter
OMAHA, Neb. -- Testing of opened peanut butter jars obtained from people sickened by salmonella has confirmed the presence of the dangerous germ, the Centers for Disease Control said Thursday. ConAgra Foods Inc. last week recalled all Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter made at its Sylvester, Ga., plant after federal health officials linked the product to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 329 people from 41 states since August. No deaths have been confirmed, although a Pennsylvania family filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming a relative died from eating tainted peanut butter. Federal officials linked the peanut butter to the outbreak by surveying people who became ill, but until now, there had been no lab results to confirm the connection. State health departments asked sickened people to bring in opened jars of peanut butter for testing, and jars in New York, Oklahoma and Iowa tested positive, said Dave Daigle, a spokesman for the CDC in Atlanta.
Passport rules relaxed forU.S. and Canadian children
DETROIT -- U.S. and Canadian children will be exempt from new rules that will require travelers to show passports when entering the U.S. at land or sea borders, a move the Bush administration said Thursday is aimed at helping families and school groups. The new passport requirements will take effect as soon as January 2008. In a change from earlier plans, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 15 or younger with parental consent will be allowed to cross the borders at land and sea entry points with certified copies of their birth certificates rather than passports. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discussed the relaxation in rules at a speech Thursday to the Detroit Economic Club before touring the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, a link with Windsor, Ontario, under the Detroit River. "This is going to make it a lot easier for kids to cross the border without having to get passports and passcards," Chertoff said.
N.Y. mayor stands firm onname listings for memorial
NEW YORK -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg is sticking with his decision to leave details such as ages and ranks off the Sept. 11 memorial, saying Thursday that "this is not a memorial just for the families." Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who had stepped into the debate this week, said he wouldn't challenge the plan. He had earlier said he would talk to Bloomberg and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine about a solution to satisfy everyone. After speaking with Bloomberg, who leads the foundation in charge of the memorial, Spitzer decided to leave decisions to the foundation's board, spokeswoman Christine Anderson said. A foundation committee in December approved the mayor's proposal to group the 2,979 victims of the 2001 attacks and the 1993 trade center bombing with people in the same tower or the flight on which they died. Family members also wanted to include such information as the victims' ages and companies and the ranks of first responders or flight crew members.
Illegal immigrants arrested
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- More than 200 illegal immigrants were arrested and three officials at a nationwide janitorial service face federal fraud and tax charges after an investigation of cleaning crews at a northern Michigan resort, government officials said. The detainees -- mostly Mexican nationals -- who were rounded up early Thursday were working as janitors for Rosenbaum-Cunningham International Inc., or RCI, a Florida-based cleaning contractor. RCI co-owners Richard M. Rosenbaum, 60, of Longwood, Fla.; and Edward Scott Cunningham, 43, of West Palm Beach, Fla.; and firm controller Christina A. Flocken, 59, also of Longwood, face criminal fraud, immigration and tax charges in a 23-count indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. "This is not a case of bad bookkeeping or skirting the rules," said Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of the Detroit office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Students get conflictinggrades in federal reports
WASHINGTON -- It doesn't add up. Two federal reports out Thursday offer conflicting messages about how well high-schoolers are doing academically. One showed that seniors did poorly on national math and reading tests. The other -- a review of high school transcripts from 2005 graduates -- showed students earning more credits, taking more challenging courses and getting better grades. "The reality is that the results don't square," said Darvin Winick, chair of the independent National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the tests. Nearly 40 percent of high school seniors scored below the basic level on the math test. More than a quarter of seniors failed to reach the basic level on the reading test.
Associated Press